Sydnes fires 70 at Paxon Hollow for a Junior Tour victory

   One shot separated Radnor senior Michael Sydnes from a trip to the PIAA Class AAA East Regional Tournament last fall.

   But Sydnes put his disappointment behind him and helped the Raiders capture a PIAA team title two weeks later.

   Sydnes seems to be gearing up for a big senior season with some outstanding performances this summer. The latest came Thursday as he had five birdies in a 1-under 70 to win the 16-to-18 division in a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour stop at Paxon Hollow Country Club in Marple Township.

Sydnes had birdies at six, seven, 11, 14 and 17 to put together the only round under par over the 5,709-yard, par-71 Paxon Hollow layout. Runnerup Cal Buonocore of Newtown Square finished two shots back of Sydnes with a 1-over 72.

   William Foxman of Bryn Mawr and Drew Steinmetz of Gilbertsville finished in a tie for third at 73. Alex Parlanti of Collegeville placed fifth with a 75.

   Matthew Barkann of Newtown Square and Jacob Liberman, a teammate of Sydnes at Radnor, finished in a tie for sixth, each player carding a 76. Zachary Barbin of Elkton, Md. took eighth with a 77, Caleb Ryan of Norristown was ninth with a 78 and Cortie Fischer of Villanova rounded out the top 10 in 10^th place with an 81.

   Ryan McCabe of Media won a match of cards with Nikita Romanov of Wilmington, Del. to take the 13-to-15 division after both players carded 3-over 74s. McCabe had birdies at the second, fifth, 12^th, 15^th and 16^th holes and his 2-under total on the back nine proved to be the difference in the match of cards.

   Austin Barbin of Elkton, Md. finished third with a 76, Joseph Morganti of Havertown took fourth with a 77, Morgan Lofland of Paoli was fifth with a 79 and Nicky Scarpone of Broomall was sixth with an 80.

   Joseph Taggart of Broomall and Brian McCartan of Doylestown shared seventh place, each posting an 82. Rounding out the top 10 were Roy Anderson of Chadds Ford and James Quinn of Radnor as they finished in a tie for ninth at 85.

   Grace Hickey of Downingtown won the girls 16-to-18 division with an 88 that included a 39 on the front nine. Runnerup Liv Juliana of Malvern was just a shot back of Hickey with an 89.

Andrea Cho of Mt. Laurel, N.J. placed third with a 101 and Marykate Chambers of Malvern was fourth with a 114.

   Christina Carroll of Bear, Del. had a 38 on the front nine on her way to an 83 that gave her the top spot in the 13-to-15 division. Grace Wang of Belle Mead, N.J. was the runnerup with a 91 and Caitlyn Hagerty of Glen Mills took third with a 103.

   There was another tie in the battle for first among the nine-holers with Jack Davis of Newtown Square winning a match of cards with Evan Barbin of Elkton, Md. after both players carded a 42. Pretty productive day for the Barbin crew from Elkton.

    Kristof Kopecky of Garnet Valley finished third with a 46 and Charlie Bastian of Media and Brendan Reilly of Warrington shared fourth place at 49. Will Reger of Media took sixth with a 55.

   Megan Adelman of Bryn Mawr and Michael Om of Blue Bell finished in a tie for seventh, each carding a 56.  Ryan Garvey of Media placed ninth with a 57. Rounding out the top 10 were Sydney Yermish of Wynnewood and Michael Dignazio of Wilmington, Del. as they finished in a tie for ninth at 58.